Abstract

The opening meeting of the 1888 session of the Royal Society ofTasmania took place on Monday evening, April 23rd, and was held inthe upper room of the new wing recently added to the Museum, which isintended to be ultimately used as a temporary picture gallery, but wasmade use of last night for the special purpose of permitting some technicalsubjects to be dealt with by the aid of some large apparatus for illustration.A large number of Fellows, and an unusually large number ofvisitors were present, including Sir Thomas Brady, the Inspector ofFisheries for Ireland, who accompanied Sir Robert and Lady Hamiltonand a party from Government House.His Excellency the Governor, who took the chair as President of theSociety. There was no matter which the RoyalSociety took up last year which was of greater interest than theintroduction of a new supply of salmon ova under the superintendenceof Sir Thomas Brady. Sir Thomas spoke on the introduction of salmon. The paper was listened to with marked attention and frequentlyapplauded, and at its conclusion Sir Thomas said no scientist wouldconsider or talk of the fish we have in Tasmania in any other way butas a salmon. He remembered three or four years ago Mr. Seager senthim three fish which after writing his own opinion of, he submitted toan eminent member of the Royal Society of Dublin, an icthyologist anda well-known scientist, who was not aware of his opinion and wrote onethat exactly coincided with it. It was that one fish was a true salmon,one was not, and there was a doubt about the third.Includes table of daily observations as to temperature made on the voyage – March and April 1888, of Salmon ova to Tasmania aboard the SS Kiakoura.Mr. Robert Henry then gave a short explanation of submarinemining, illustrated by apparatus and illustrations of the working ofelectro-contact mines as used for the protection of our harbour. Mr. W.F. Ward, the Government analysist, followed with some simple butinteresting and rapidly performed experiments with the air pump, toillustrate the elasticity of gases and modern theories deduced from suchphenomena.In the lower room there was a display of exhibits, a collection of photographs,a lithographic press, and an oxy-hydrogen microscope.Great interest was manifested in Mr. Perrin's exhibits, especially in theproposed design for the timber trophy in the Melbourne Exhibition. Thephotographs represent the work of an eight months old association—TheTasmanian Photographic and Art Association—and are worthy specimensof this beautiful art.The oxy-hydrogen microscope was also demonstrated by Mr. Echlin,assisted by Mr. A. L. Butler. This instrument is probably the only oneof its kind in the colonies, patented by Newton, London. It will projectthe smallest microscopic object on the screen eight feet in diameter or atwill the image can be deflected on the table, rendering it applicable eitherfor copying the object with pencil or photograph ; with the latter anexposure of a fraction of a second will suffice.

In 1843 the Horticultural and Botanical Society of Van Diemen's Land was founded and became the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science in 1844. In 1855 its name changed to Royal Society of Tasmania for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science. In 1911 the name was shortened to Royal Society of Tasmania.